6 Reasons Growers Choose Agcopter Over See & Spray, WeedSeeker, Weed-It & Bilberry

Advanced ag service companies and growers are increasingly choosing Agcopter’s weed-detecting drones 🚁 ahead of other spot-spraying systems like See & Spray™, WeedSeeker®, Weed-It, and Bilberry. Here’s why.

1. Integration with existing systems

The maps generated by Agcopter’s drones load into your existing GPS spray controllers, turning the sprayers you already own into spot sprayers. Agcopter maps are compatible with most GPS systems and rate controllers — Trimble, Raven, John Deere, and more. There’s no additional equipment to install, ever — unlike boom-based sensors that get damaged and must be purchased and installed every time you change or add a sprayer. And you can run your Agcopter maps in multiple sprayers, even at the same time.

2. Highly accurate weed detection and mapping

Agcopter’s drones map weeds in fallow fields with centimeter-level accuracy at over 500 acres per hour. The sensor’s high vantage point and multiple angles of detection make for extremely effective targeting, and can outperform boom-mounted optical sprayers with fewer false positives. Boom-based sensors are hampered by everyday factors — low vantage point, boom-height variation, speed, dust, water, and chemical mist. Separating weed detection from spraying eliminates these issues.

3. Pre-spray planning and chemical management

Agcopter’s software tells you weed coverage, the quantity of chemical needed, and the acres to be sprayed before you spray — so you can plan herbicide types and amounts precisely. With boom-based sensors you can only guess how much chemical you’ll use, so you either refill more often or end up with expensive mix sitting in the tank.

4. Seasonal mapping for pre-emptive control

Accumulate weed maps over a season and you build a comprehensive seasonal map — useful for selective pre-emergent herbicide application before the next season’s weeds germinate.

5. Customizable spray buffer size

In the Agcopter software you set the spray buffer around weeds to suit your needs. Tired of only getting part of the plant when spraying paraquat? Want a good margin around each weed while still saving a huge percentage of chemical? The ability to set any buffer size is a big advantage over boom-based sensors.

6. The future: AI and green-on-green

Our developers are making significant progress on “in-crop,” or green-on-green, weed detection. Machine learning is a big part of that — and AI is only as good as the data it learns from. Our sensors gather extremely high-resolution imagery and fluorescence data at over 500 acres an hour: multitudes higher in quality, volume, and speed than competing systems under development.

The competition’s boom-based approach gives the AI a split second to attempt detection. Agcopter’s approach of separating detection from spraying lets the AI take time to analyze the data, constantly learn, and get it right — putting us far ahead of the curve on in-crop weed detection.

💰 And… the Agcopter system costs less than these other systems — with no subscription fees.